The launch of Al Jazeera America is arguably the best thing to happen in electronic journalism since the June evening 33 years ago when Ted Turner flipped a switch to inaugurate the nation's first all-news television service, CNN.

I've lived in a lot of apartments in a lot of different cities. Most of them have been described as vintage in their listing, which translates as very basic and old. I'm a big believer in location, location, location and I'm willing to trade where I am for whatever amenities there just aren't in my immediate surroundings.

On May 11, 2013, Indian President Pranab Mukherhee said "The future prosperity of India in the new knowledge economy will increasingly depend on its ability to generate new ideas, processes and solutions." He was right not just about India, but indeed about the whole world; we need strong incentives to innovate, invent, and create - and that must include meaningful legal protections for the products of invention and creation. Unfortunately, despite the rhetoric, India has been moving sharply against protecting intellectual property rights, with serious repercussions for companies that want to invest in India and by implication for global innovation and ...

It's time to address the burning question singeing the lips of every American this summer: What will happen to Bryan Cranston's pork pie hat after "Breaking Bad" ends its run? Okay, maybe that's No. 2. The big one is who's going to be the Democratic presidential candidate in November of 2016? Thirty-eight months and counting.

Mark your calendar for August 28, the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's iconic "I Have A Dream" speech, which was delivered to more than 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

My big summer project has turned out to be redecorating my Chicago apartment. It all started because I told my landlord I was moving in order to gain a dishwasher and a vent above the stove. He countered with an offer to put both of them in and then some. That has created an interesting discussion among my friends about women and comic books that has been more disturbing than you might have thought possible.

SAN DIEGO -- This tourist Mecca has long been loved for the gleaming beaches along its 70-mile coastline where the sea caresses the sand. Now it's becoming known as the city where its Mayor allegedly gave unwanted caresses, butt pats and playful chokeholds to more than a dozen women.

Just like AAA ratings on mortgage-backed securities led to Wall Street's 2008 disaster, a rash of accountability scandals might be precursors to a similar public school crash. After years of promises that test-driven accountability would yield miracles, scandals with school ratings are popping up all over the country. Unless we hold reformers as accountable as they hold students, these scandals could bring down our public school system the same way Wall Street almost innovated our economy back into the Stone Age.

Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who lived on a farm past the woods. She was friends with a bossy but politically connected pig, a groveling sheep who worked as a flunky for the village and a scared little mouse who specialized in running away and hiding. Hey. Sometimes your friends are whoever lives on the farm next to you.

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Last week President Obama sent Congress legislation to authorize him to use force against ISIS "and associated persons and forces" anywhere in the world for the next three years. This is a blank check for the president to start as many new wars as he wishes, and it appears Congress will go along with this dangerous and costly scheme.

What would it look like if politics stopped at the water's edge? It wouldn't look like the mess that John Boehner created by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a session of Congress on March 3. By allowing Netanyahu to stage what is effectively a campaign event in the U.S. Capitol, congressional Republicans have not only damaged our relations with Israel but threatened our diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

It's kind of sad being forced to watch the death struggle of these modern-day dinosaurs. Responsible parents should keep their kids from peering over the Plexiglas railing into the tar pits below to see the huge lumbering antediluvian beasts frenziedly dig themselves deeper into the sticky morass that is gay marriage. Not a sight for the queasy or squeamish.